Main Street Blog

Different groups have different roles.
If you spend any time on Facebook, either for business or personal reasons, you’ve likely noticed significant changes in what content is being distributed over the newsfeed. The reach of most Facebook Pages has been severely reduced while posts from Facebook Groups are getting more visibility.
Facebook’s algorithm has always governed what we see and[...]

On April 4, Maple Ridge played host to the Innovation in Emerging Cities Forum.
The event brought together representatives from industry, education, and government to discuss ways to foster a climate of innovation and how to attract, develop and retain the talent required to sustain such a culture.
I had the pleasure of emceeing the event and working with the City of Maple Ridge’s economic[...]

It is easy to forget, tucked as we are into the far northeastern corner of Metro Vancouver, that Maple Ridge is part of a large urban region with a population of roughly 2.463 million.
At the heart of the region is the City of Vancouver, one of the world’s Top 10 most livable cities, according to Conde Naste.
Proximity matters, and as land and housing prices skyrocket throughout the [...]

The first in a series on innovation and emerging cities.
Technology impacts nearly all areas of our lives, from how we communicate to how we work.
According to Randstad Canada, Canada’s largest staffing firm, “Technology is changing traditional industries, and how business is done and the type of work performed. Virtual technologies dictate how natural resources are sourced, recovered [...]

The launch this fall of The Digital Hallway is good news for parents, teachers and high school students. The Digital Hallway is the brainchild of B.C.'s That Social Media Guy, Sean Smith. It is a program that teaches parents, teachers and teens about social media. Not just the bad, scary side of social, but the good as well.
According to Smith, there is a cycle when it comes to social [...]

I recently spent a Saturday afternoon at a local hair salon. To keep me company while I had my hair cut and coloured, I had my smartphone, and old-school, a fashion magazine. As I leafed lazily through the magazine, a darkly beautiful young woman took the seat beside me. I noticed first her grace as she sat, and then her outgoing energy.
She is vivacious and happy, chatting with her [...]

I have a friend. Let’s call her Jane. Jane had a minor falling out with another friend. Let’s call him Dick. Dick and Jane don’t see too much of each other these days. They are polite, but a little uncomfortable when they bump into one another, even though they share many interests, and have many friends in common.
Both Dick and Jane have Facebook accounts, and they have an even wider [...]

I don’t know about you, but I am beginning to experience Facebook fatigue.
I am spending less time online, and less on Facebook, specifically. I unfollow people whose posts annoy me, and seek out those whose content inspires, nourishes or entertains.
I recently asked my Facebook community to tell me what kind of original content they are creating for social media. My question was a sneaky [...]

July 1 is Canada Day, a federal statutory holiday where Canadians across the country celebrate the anniversary of the enactment of the Constitution Act 1867, which united three separate colonies into a single Dominion called Canada. I swell with pride just typing this
I will be out of the country on Canada Day, and will rely on social media newsfeeds to share the celebration. To me, this is [...]

Scrolling through the Facebook news feed can be an emotional roller coaster ride. Life and death, tragedy and comedy all flow across our screens at a scale and scope that isn’t really possible to consciously absorb, let alone respond to adequately.
A year or so ago, Facebook added ‘Reactions’ to its vocabulary of responses. Prior to the ‘Reactions’ rollout we could reply to a post by [...]